Drink-driver ignores police and drives off

John Deehan

A court has heard how a driver over twice the legal limit turned off his lights and carried on driving after police stopped him in an early hours incident in Lancashire.

Despite being spoken to by authorities, Zilvinas Vaigauskas, a window fitter, turned off his lights and carried on driving along on Rickard Road in Nelson at 1.30am on April 17th.

Vaigauskas - who blew 89 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath with the legal limit being 35 - did not get very far, however, as he was stopped by another officer further down the road, at which point he was cooperative from then on.

The 29-year-old defendant's address on the court list was Marsden Hall Road in Nelson, but he said - through a translator - he did not know whose address that was and gave one that court staff did not recognise.

He admitted driving with excess alcohol and was fined £200, with £85 costs and a £30 victim surcharge and was banned for 18 months. He had no previous convictions, either in this country or in Poland, where he was born.

Mr Daniel Frazer, defending, said Vaigauskas could not give explanation as to why he had got behind the wheel, with the solicitor adding: "He can only apologise to the court. He has been resident in the UK for a little over 14 months now. He is employed in the window trade, fitting tinted windows."